'DayZ' Standalone Coming To Xbox One And PS4?

Will "DayZ" soon be available on the Xbox One and PS4? Photo: Courtesy/Bohemia

Zombie survival horror game “DayZ” may be coming to the PS4 and Xbox One, though no specific plans have been set.

"I think all the console manufacturers are interested in ‘DayZ,’ and rightly so because we've sold a fair amount of units in a short space of time and it's a game that could potentially transfer quite well to consoles,” creator Dean Hall, 32, told Game Reactor on April 6.

As of April 1, “DayZ” had sold 1.7 million copies, while “DayZ” creator Bohemia Interactive announced the opening of a new studio in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Hall revealed the news at the British gaming event EGX Rezzed 2014 during the last week of March, where he also announced the game’s original “Arma 2” mod had been downloaded more than 2 million times.

The developer’s Slovakia branch will employ the facilities, technologies and staff of game company Cauldron, which was founded in 1996 and is the developer behind “Cabela’s Big Game Hunter 2010” and “Jurassic: The Hunted.”

"The consoles are trying to sort of break new ground with where they're heading," Hall continued. "Because I'm sure there's a lot of console gamers out there who they would have loved to be a part of say ‘Minecraft’ when it first came out, and things like that.”

Hall stated that Bohemia is still working on the PC open world survival game – with little time left over to begin working on console versions of the title.

"So really the bottleneck is us," he added. "We need to get the PC build to the right state, where then it can pull across, and I think everybody recognizes that there's no sense in starting to pull something across that's dramatically changing all the time.”

“DayZ” launched on Dec. 17 last year on Steam Early Access in an alpha release. After one hour, the game had recruited 19,000 users. During the first 12 hours, the title drew 88,000 players. After 24 hours, “DayZ” had been downloaded 172,500 times. The open-world multiplayer title was created by New Zealander Hall and developed by Bohemia Interactive. “DayZ” is a standalone version of the award-winning mod of the same name.

The next day, Bohemia Interactive CEO Maruk Spanel wrote a blog post about the game’s progress: “First day of ‘DayZ’ (Alpha). Hours passed: 24. Copies sold: 172,500. Survivors online: 142,403. Bugs discovered: many. Work ahead: hard.” On Dec. 17, “Gears of War” creator Cliff Bleszinski tweeted about playing “DayZ,” snapping a screen shot of a glitch he discovered in the game. Since its launch, Bohemia didn’t hide the fact that the zombie game had a number of glitches, even warning players who were looking for a perfect, non-buggy game to not purchase the game.

“It’s a true-blue alpha. Massive areas of the engine were entirely reworked, involving a large team of people over the last 12 months. Much of what these achievements will enable won’t be seen for many months – so I really plead for anyone who is on the fence to take a skeptical approach – watch streams, read reviews, watch some let’s play and form your opinion. You could always come back to the game in three, six months’ time and buy it then,” Hall warned players in mid-December.

“DayZ” is a basic survival horror game, where players take on tasks to gather food, supplies, medicine, clothing and water in a 225-square-kilometer setting. Items can be collected in random places such as abandoned vehicles, homes and barns. Players can also pick up weapons for protection from other players or the undead.

The “DayZ” standalone game began development in August 2012 following the success of the original mod. Hall joined forces with Bohemia Interactive and took over as project lead. Three months later, he posted an unedited video clip of the game’s multiplayer mode to YouTube, saying the footage “makes no effort to mask the variety of bugs.” Hall has talked about moving the game to next-gen consoles including the PS4 or Xbox One, although no specific date has been set for either system. Though the game has experienced a number of bugs, its popularity has continued to increase.